I always dreamt of seeing snow since as far as I can remember and seeing snow covered peaks as a birthday gift, well that was pretty special! The journey to the Kingdom of Norway began on 13th day of October, zooming in the skies at over 680 km/h from Goa to Mumbai, I couldn’t have been any happier. Blessing, birthday and safe journey wishes from parents, relatives and friend and little bit of sadness leaving loved ones even though for few days.
We were on our way for an onsite trip to Norway for further enhancements of the software we were working on. Come 14th day of October we were in Europe after an 8 hour journey on Boeing 747 jumbo jet, another dream comes true.
At night my boss woke me up and handed a business class pouch and guess what! It was a birthday gift from Lufthansa. We had reached Frankfurt international airport in Germany and it was lovely and beautiful,something that I had never seen. The place was like toy land with giant airplanes taxing, parked all over. I just loved it. I took my first steps on European soil and soon we were on CRJ900 on our way to Bergen. Two hours later with European breakfast (just like my boss had described), snow covered peaks and cruising over the Atlantic Ocean and we landed in Bergen.
Bergen in one word- Beautiful.
We went out for a brisk walk after reaching the hotel in +8 degree Celsius temperature but it was not brisk but man it was awesome! Down in a valley, lovely beautiful colorful trees draped the hill tops. I was loving every moment of the walk with the flashing camera and with my boss guiding me on the Nordic adventure.
Come Monday and it was time for meeting with the clients, everyone was very happy to see us but now it’s time to work.
When we are with client we need to have a very good concentration to listen to them and get as much as possible from people who are actually going to use the software. With a glass of apple juice the day went by and it was time to head for the hills! We walked for few minutes to go up the hill from where the Norwegians we can get the best view of Bergen, and so right are they! The view was breathtaking, simply awesome. The view is quite possible every couple’s dream view.
A little walk after the lovely view to Zupperia for dinner, believe it or not at 6.30 pm in the evening.
As the sun rose in Bergen we were already in office with clients for some heavy duty discussion for the future version, note taking, bug reports, release plans, feature requests and soon it’s time for lunch. With apple juice, coca cola and chocolate chips cookies time just flies. We went home and then dinner with Ms Dias,it was a really nice evening. A word of advice try to talk and not be calm, they love it when you talk. I learnt a few ways to impress Norwegians chicks (shhhhhhhhh).
Another day, full of meetings and discussions; not only with our clients but also with our team back in India, who were always ready to kick in for help.
The days were just blazing past us but one of the clients made the trip even more special by taking us for a fishing trip!
Dreams do come true and they were coming true like I was still asleep. Though we didn’t get anything we enjoyed the trip in the Nordic rain. Then dinner and I unknowingly had liquor biscuits 🙁 but then we had Moose for dinner. It was very nice evening with the client, who was the most adventurous person I have ever met.
On our last day we had traditional Norwegian dinner with potatoes, lamb and a dessert which has nearly gone into the history books to be lost forever.
Boss wanted to buy souvenirs for the team back home but since we were always busy in the evening and the shops closing early in Bergen we had no chance of shopping.But a promise is a promise, though I couldn’t get snow in a bottle but a Nordic leaf came home with me.